PROJ 6010: Denver Airport Project - Influences, Viability, Planning

This case study provides an analysis of the Denver Airport construction project, examining the various factors that influenced its development, viability, and planning stages. The analysis employs a PESTLE framework to assess the political, economic, social, technological, legal, and environmental fa...Read More

Running Head: PROJECT APPLICATION CONSTRUCTION MANAGEMENT
Project Application Construction Management
Name of the Student
Name of the University

1PROJECT APPLICATION CONSTRUCTION MANAGEMENT
Part A: Project Influences (Module 1)
From the PESTLE perspective, the case study of the Denver Airport can be analyzed as
follows.
Political – Political factors have significantly affected the construction of the Denver
Airport. Due to major problems arising regarding funding and implementation of different
complex technologies related to the airport, there were competitions between three local mayor
candidates regarding how much each of them will offer for the completion of the airport within a
reasonable amount of time (Jordan, 2017). With delay occurring due to several complexities and
problems regarding the implementation of the technology, the mayor had to take active part for
completing the project and open the airport for public.
Economic – Economic factors have significant impact on this project. Citing several
major problems like the scale of the project, complexity of the entire system, newness of the
technology and others, the project was delayed beyond deadline for a considerable amount of
time. Due to the delay, the costs of the project were also increased significantly and even after
the significant increase, the project was not completed. Hence, the authority faced major losses
from the project.
Social – Social factors had some impact on the progress of the Denver Airport project.
Due to the increasing demands of an airport in Denver with significant influx of passengers,
social pressure was growing to get the construction done and open the airport for public use (De
Neufville, 2016). With continuing delay in the construction and implementation of the proposed

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technologies, the hostility of the people increased and the authority faced enormous pressure to
get the project done as fast as possible.
Technological – Technology always played a major role in the project. As per the
proposed plan for the airport, several new technologies needed to be implemented in the airport
including the baggage handling and processing technology (Han, Clarke & Tsou, 2017). While it
was already estimated that implementation of the technologies will require high amount of fund,
it could not be predicted that the project will later face major complications regarding the
newness and complexity of the implementation of the technologies.
Legal – After a significant amount of delay, a survey was done in order to determine the
existing condition of the project and whether it can be completed or not. It was found that
although the technical implementations were made according to plan, the project should require
some more and significant amount of time in order to complete all the technical work and get all
the functionalities working properly or the airport could be opened for public by skipping the
remaining work. For the second case, it was highly likely that the airlines companies could sue
the airport authority for not providing the functionalities as promised initially.
Environmental – The project affected the environment significantly due to the
continuous period of the construction (McDonald et al., 2018). With the increasing delay of the
project, the construction works constantly made negative impact on the surrounding environment
and hence, there was growing pressure to complete the works in order to prevent further harm to
the environment.
As a project manager of the Denver Airport project, I would have taken some steps to
prepare for the influences mentioned above. Firstly, I would have conducted a risk analysis to

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identify all the risks associated with the project and take suitable steps accordingly. Secondly, I
would have conducted a feasibility analysis of the project and after some rounds of discussions
with all relevant authorities as well as the airline companies, I would have set a more flexible and
extended deadline so that delays did not cause massive amounts of losses.
The decision to build was not very unrealistic as the proposed plan had numerous long
term benefits if the initial shortfalls and risks could be survived and addressed. However, the
major part that was missing while taking the decision was that there were no prior feasibility
analyses conducted before the project was approved. After deciding on a suitable amount of
budget and time schedule, a feasibility analysis was required to determine whether the project
could be completed within those set limits. In my opinion, the decision was good one as the
benefits of the airport can now be noticed after several years have passed after the construction
process. However, the construction period has been much more complex and a lot of difficulties
have been faced. Hence, some flexibility had to be added during the setting of project scope and
analyzing risks and feasibility of the project.
Part B: Assessing Project Viability (Module 2)
Regarding project feasibility, I would need to focus first on the budget and schedule of
the project. It is evident from the case study of the Denver Airport, delay in the project can cause
significant increase in costs that in turn result in heavy losses for the authority as well as the
project contractor who has been working on the project from the start. Hence, it is important to
check whether the preset budget and schedule are suitable for getting the project done based on
the complexity and amount of possible risks that may be encountered during the course of the
project.

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The scale of the Denver Airport Construction was huge and hence, a much better
approach could have been taken in order to ensure the project is completed by fulfilling all the
requirements and preventing any losses for the authority or the project contractor. I identified the
major flaw in the prepared plan as there was not sufficient risk and feasibility analysis done
during the planning of the project. Furthermore, I also found that even the authority was not sure
whether the project could be completed at all after several months past post the deadline. I would
have taken a different approach and prioritize assessing risks and project feasibility before
proceeding with the project. In addition, I would also have set a more flexible deadline instead of
a strict and short deadline so that all the activities could be completed without encountering
delay costs.
There was significant need for accurate estimations of cost and profitability for the
project as this was a very large scale project and involved a huge amount of expenses.
Furthermore, with delay of the project, the overall costs accelerated quickly to reach a very high
value after few months of the deadline passed. In order to cover for the expenses, the authority
slapped a $50 million late penalty of the project contractor. In spite of these, the profitability of
the project was decreased significantly.
In order to determine whether the decisions were effective, I would monitor the project
on a regular basis (weekly). I would also ensure the decisions taken were carried out effectively
in order to gain sufficient benefits from the project. For the decisions that have not been effective
in the project, I would consider change management process and discuss with the stakeholders to
determine some changes that can be introduced in the project. I would also consider feasibility of
these changes in the project before actually implementing them.

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Part C: Project Planning (Module 2)
The roles of some of the plans, which need to be implemented within the construction
project of Denver Airport, are as follows:
Value Management – One of the major problems of the BAE Automated Systems is that
the airport was facing a major issue in meeting the deadlines in order to build the space for
storing the various elements of the baggage handling system. The role of the value management
is to make appropriate decisions in order to adhere to the deadlines.
Risk Management – There are various risks that would be inherited with the
implementation of the project. This would include the large scale of the project, the massive
complexity of the new system and the adoption of the new form of technology, high level of
uncertainty with the technical based definition of the project and the short span of time for the
completion of the project (Keller et al., 2015). Hence the new form of system would be helpful in
mitigating the risks associated with the implementation of the project.
Quality Management – The management of the quality of the BAE Automated Systems
is very much essential in order to process the huge capacities of the expanded system within the
airport. The quality of the system had to be given the topmost priority for the smooth function of
work within the systems.
Change Management – There were several negotiations that had been made with the
contract of the project. These negotiations had also brought a major change within the structure
of the organization (Barrett, 2015). The huge change within the airport systems would be needed
to be managed in order to adapt the new technology. Hence, an efficient manager would be
highly needed in order to deal with the changes within the structure.

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Environmental Management – The environment within the Denver airport should be
assessed properly. This would be very much necessary for the implementation of the automated
luggage systems.
Health and Safety Management – The health of the passengers within the airport
should be taken care of properly. The airport management should consider the basic health
facilities of the passengers in order to satisfy the growing demands and luxury of the passengers.
The safety of the passengers should also be taken into consideration (Moran, 2014). The
automated systems would be a huge help for the comfort of the passengers. Hence the health and
safety management would be playing a major role for the BAE Automated Systems.
Resources Management – The management of the additional resources that would be
necessary for the completion of the project is extremely necessary to be decided prior to the
starting of the project. The proper resources, which would be needed for the start of the project
should be acquired within proper time so that the management could work on the progress of the
project.
The discussed plans have been made for the successful completion of the project. The
implementation of the various forms of management within the BAE Automated System could
have a major impact on the project completion. There should be a proper assessment of the
mentioned criteria in order to establish the base of the project. These plans would have a major
impact for dealing with the several issues that would arise during the start of the entire
construction of the system (Marcelino-Sádaba et al., 2014). The pre-determined deadlines should
be met in order to complete the project. A well settled management is extremely necessary in
order to look into the various aspects of the project. A new form of the engineering system would

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need a high level of dedication from the employees as well as from the management and the
consulting team. Hence, the project should be looked from the perspective of the public so as to
understand their issues and thus ensure a smooth working of the automated baggage system.

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References
Barrett, S. (2015). Ownership structures and the implications for developing airport solar
projects in the USA. Journal of Airport Management, 9(3), 248-263.
Cagliano, A. C., Grimaldi, S., & Rafele, C. (2015). Choosing project risk management
techniques. A theoretical framework. Journal of Risk Research, 18(2), 232-248.
De Neufville, R. (2016). Airport systems planning and design. Air Transport Management: An
International Perspective, 61.
Han, S. Y., Clarke, K. C., & Tsou, M. H. (2017, November). Animated Flow Maps for
Visualizing Human Movement: Two Demonstrations with Air Traffic and Twitter Data.
In Proceedings of the 1st ACM SIGSPATIAL Workshop on Analytics for Local Events
and News (p. 5). ACM.
Jordan, G. (2017). Optimizing Pedestrian Flow in Airports(Doctoral dissertation, University of
Colorado at Colorado Springs).
Keller, T. L., Trier, S. B., Hall, W. D., Sharman, R. D., Xu, M., & Liu, Y. (2015). Lee waves
associated with a commercial jetliner accident at Denver International Airport. Journal of
Applied Meteorology and Climatology, 54(7), 1373-1392.
Kerzner, H., & Kerzner, H. R. (2017). Project management: a systems approach to planning,
scheduling, and controlling. John Wiley & Sons.

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Marcelino-Sádaba, S., Pérez-Ezcurdia, A., Lazcano, A. M. E., & Villanueva, P. (2014). Project
risk management methodology for small firms. International journal of project
management, 32(2), 327-340.
McDonald, A., Ni, C., Li, J., Gu, T., & Jin, X. (2018). Scenarios for Pollinator Habitat at Denver
International Airport.
Moran, A. (2014). Project Risk Management. In Agile Risk Management (pp. 17-32). Springer,
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Paquin, J. P., Gauthier, C., & Morin, P. P. (2016). The downside risk of project portfolios: The
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Parihar, S., Bhar, C., & Srivastava, N. K. (2015). A Project Risk Management Methodology
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Installation Projects. Jindal Journal of Business Research, 4(1-2), 27-45.